El Jueves Depicts Muhammad

The Spanish satirical magazine El Jueves is the latest European magazine to publish a picture depicting the prophet Muhammad.

Well, sort of.

This week’s issue portrays on its cover a police lineup of men in traditional Islamic outfits, with a title asking, “But how do they know which one is Muhammad?”

At the time this article was published, El Jueves’ website was down.

Mayte Quílez, editor of El Jueves, told El Huffington Post that the cover “does not intend to portray Muhammad. It’s a parody of the situation we are experiencing.”

“If you can’t depict Muhammad, how do you know it is him in the cartoons?”

Quílez added that the magazine had not been notified of any possible consequences of the cover — but the Spanish newspaper ABC reports that the Spanish embassy in Egypt has asked Spanish nationals in the country to take precautions.

El Jueves is known for its satire, pushing social boundaries through humor. This is not the first time the magazine has referred to drawings of Muhammad on its cover; it paid homage to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that published its own images of Muhammad in 2005. The headline depicted El Jueves’ mascot, a joker, saying, “We were going to draw Muhammad, but we shit ourselves!”